Pages

Wednesday, February 12, 2014

College Basketball Field of 68 Bracket (Feb 12, 2014)

In today’s bracket update, I will compare the resumes of Kentucky and Texas. I am not a Wildcat-hater, I just like to identify things that don’t make a lot of sense.

Overall Record: Kentucky 18-5/Texas 19-5Conference Record and Standing: Kentucky 8-2, 2nd SEC/Texas 8-3, 2nd Big 12Road Record: Kentucky 3-3/Texas 5-2RPI: Kentucky 10/Texas 22SOS: Kentucky 6/Texas 60Record vs RPI Top 25: Kentucky 0-1/Texas 2-2Record vs RPI Top 50: Kentucky 3-2/Texas 5-5Record vs RPI Top 100: Kentucky 10-5/Texas 10-5Record vs RPI Top 150: Kentucky 12-5/Texas 12-5Best Wins: Kentucky – Louisville (34), Missouri (47), Tennessee (49), Providence (52)/Texas – Kansas (1), Iowa State (11), Kansas State (30), Oklahoma State (36), North Carolina (37) Losses: Kentucky – Michigan State (9), North Carolina (37), Baylor (58), LSU (59), Arkansas (73)/Texas – Michigan State (9), Oklahoma (21), Kansas State (30), Oklahoma State (36), BYU (46)This is where I feel RPI and SOS can be misleading. The teams have essentially the exact same record. Both teams are in 2nd place in conference, but Texas plays in the more difficult Big 12. Texas has a better road record, better wins and better losses. Yet because Texas played worse teams in the games against sub-150 opponents, their SOS and RPI get dragged down well below Kentucky’s, giving the perception that Kentucky would have the superior resume. But do they really? What is the difference if your cupcakes are 286,291,300 and 340 like Texas or 206,240,296 like Kentucky. Both teams were going to beat those teams anyway. Texas has played double the Top 50 teams, yet their SOS is 54 spots lower because of Rice and Houston Baptist.

With your bracket and seeding above (WI and Creighton both with 3 seeds), the committee would be out of their minds to not send Wisconsin to the Milwaukee region. If they were to then reward Creighton, it is more likely they would then do so to St. Louis and ship Wichita State to San Antonio as their "close site".